SNP £700 income tax bombshell revealed

Scottish Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander today said that working Scots would have faced a £700 income tax bombshell if the SNP had been in a position to implement their tax policy in 2010.

He warned that Scots will miss out on a further tax cut worth £400 a year by the end of the next Parliament if the SNP gets its way.

Mr Alexander was speaking as he campaigned with Gordon Liberal Democrat candidate Christine Jardine on Lib Dem plans to cut income tax for workers by another £400 per year by the end of the next parliament.

The Liberal Democrat 2010 manifesto included proposals to increase the income tax threshold to from £6475 to £10,000. This represented an income tax cut worth £705 for millions of working people and has lifted millions of the low paid out of paying income tax altogether. Liberal Democrats in government fought at every Budget to deliver successive rises in the income tax threshold to deliver this commitment.

In fact, they exceeded the £10,000 figure and at the start of this month, the income tax threshold increased to £10,600, meaning that the tax cut is worth £825. In stark contrast, SNP plans would have seen the income tax threshold increase only by inflation from 2010. Their plans would have raised the income tax threshold to about £7000, which would have denied millions of working people £700 per year compared to what the Liberal Democrats have delivered.

Commenting, Danny Alexander said:

"Liberal Democrats have cut tax by £825 for people on low and middle incomes. In the next parliament we want to go further and get people another £380 income tax cut.

"Under the SNP or Labour, people will not get that tax cut. We are the only party which has stood up in government for tax cuts for working people. And we are the only party with a costed plan to give working people more tax cuts in the next parliament.

"The SNP have been firmly opposed to our income tax cuts for the last five years. They have consistently voted against the finance bills that delivered the tax cuts.

"The SNP would have only increased the income tax threshold by inflation from its 2010 level of £6,475. If the SNP had got their way, working Scots would have been left counting the cost of a £700 nationalist tax bombshell. That is why you need Lib Dems in government.

“The SNP have been silent on this in their manifesto. People deserve to know if they will be worse off under their plans.

"A Liberal Democrat vote in this election is a vote for a further tax cut of £400. A vote for Labour or the SNP is a vote to miss out on that tax cut."

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